"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

REQUESTING STATEMENT ON HARASSMENT POLICY
Monday, April 8, 2013 1:22 PM
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Dear Sirs:
As I am certain you are now aware, it has been reported that the office of Howard County State’s Attorney has refused to prosecute persons accused of online harassment, in apparent contravention of Maryland Criminal Statutes 3-803 and/or 3-805. In fact, it has been reported that a member of your staff, Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Brewer, advised persons complaining of such harassment, “If you’re so concerned about your safety, don’t come to Maryland,” and, “Stay off the Internet if you don’t want to be harassed.”
While I understand that authorities have wide discretion in choosing which complaints to pursue as criminal matters, these reports of official indifference to online harassment are certainly disturbing, and I wish to verify their accuracy. Has your office issued any statement clarifying your policy on this matter, or do you intend to issue such a statement in the future?
I ask this question as a reporter, a career journalist with more than 25 years in the news industry, but also as a former Maryland resident who left the state last year to escape the increasingly hostile climate of harassment that is apparently tolerated by officials there. While I am not a lawyer, and thus not qualified to state whether any particular action qualifies as a crime under Maryland statutes, I know right from wrong, and the harassing behaviors complained of in these reports would seem clearly wrong.
If you have any comment, please contact me via this e-mail address, as I hesitate to include my phone number or address in communication with your office.

Certainly, this list will grow longer before the day ends. Dustyn at Monitor’s Access reports that the number at the office of Howard County State’s Attorney’s Dario J. Broccolino is (410) 313-2108; the number for Wayne Kirwan, the public spokesman for the office, is 410-313-3002.

My object is to get some kind of official statement from Broccolino or his spokesman, as to why there seems to be no legal redress for those complaining of harassment. Readers communicating with Broccolino’s office should be civil and polite.

One nitpick. He said that about staying out of Maryalnd in response to when I told him about Kimberlin stalking my wife. Which besides implicitly admitting they can’t control their criminals in MD, isn’t much comfort when Brett Kimberlin lives only about 40 minutes from my house.

Maryland was the place where they wanted to make everyone conform to the same religion once upon a time. Evidently something in the water makes them swoon for a good, old-fashioned, totalitarian police state.

I wonder how people working in Maryland’s hospitality industry would feel if they knew that a high ranking government official was telling people to stay out of Maryland for their own safety. Has anyone contacted The Maryland Tourism Council?

Not quite. Maryland was set aside as a haven for Roman Catholics, whose primary occupation in England was being slaughtered. The Church of England and the rest of the reform movements had the other 12 colonies, and later Canada and the Caribbean.

If there is anything to be learned about this exercise, it is that dishonesty and violence work. Honesty and fair play? Not so much,

There is no upside for a Maryland prosecutor to go after Kimberlin and his bunch of crazies. And, they probably would prefer that (in their mind) wingers stay out of Maryland. And, no, they are NOT going to protect you. I bet this email campaign goes right to the autodelete bin.

And you know what they will say if someone outside of the dextrosphere says boo about it? They will lie about it. They will say it didn’t happen, that we are the liars.

There will be no response.

You want to rattle some cages? Buy a billboard in Baltimore with the quote, and say something like “we agree, come to Virginia. We have Ken Cuccinelli.”

Stir somebody’s pot. That will get some attention. It will piss off O’Malley. And if he gets pissed off, he won’t shut his mouth about it.

No. (whatever DAMB means) I had another comment but it was taking so long to post that I moved on. When I looked back, it didn’t get posted. Never had a comment do that before. (and it wasn’t moderator chow either). Not important enough to repeat other than to mention it.

Hmmm. Perhaps so. But I’d say the penalty clause would override that significant point. An age-old problem that statists have in their thought process is that they keep chasing the chimera of “being able to bring historical problems to book.”

Yeah, Disqus has been really stuttering lately. I think it’s because they are getting serious competition from other comment systems now. This is making it harder to grow slowly. I’d wager the coffee consumption there is nearly equal to the worst days at Apple.

jakee308 April 8th, 2013 @ 11:08 pm

I’ve always felt that the folks saying we should take the high road and not imitate the scum pulling this crap are full of blogna.

I think we should’ve organized a “Make Brett Kimberlin Lose His Mind” day and had a parade down his street. Complete with clown cars and lots and lots of photographers. the culmination would’ve been all the attendees standing outside his house, pointing and laughing at him and it. Maybe we could’ve made guns with our fingers and pointed too.

I think THAT would have been and still may be the only way to get any kind of justice, retribution and to cause him to back off.

But then I’m just a peaceful, fun loving guy myself and tend to let stuff like what happened to Aaron Walker roll off my back.

[…] my political opinions, I could turn to other random strangers to defend me. Here’s a link to The Other McCain‘s letter to the State’s Attorney of Howard County, MD, asking if online harassment is […]

jakee308 April 9th, 2013 @ 3:19 am

Even if he meant that in the best possible way, he was a dumba$$ for saying it like that and under those conditions. For that reason alone, he should be removed from his position. He’s too dumb to be allowed the power he has.

Cube April 9th, 2013 @ 9:36 am

Do these officials realize that this attitude toward stalking/harassment is an open invitation to vigilante action? It translates directly as “We’re not going to protect you, so its up to you to protect yourself.”

Everyone I’ve read on the subject has strongly rejected that idea, for good reason. By definition, vigilante actions lack due process, checks and balance and accountability, and often innocent people get hurt. But if these criminal activities are allowed to continue, it won’t be long before someone will be attacked who will respond directly to the attackers as they see fit and feel no restraints. This is a breakdown of civilized society and I for one want no part of it. But when the legal, civilized avenues for redress are closed and people are unwilling to simply be victims, what other choice is there?

Also, in states like Maryland, they will devote more resources to prosecuting a “vigilante” than to a cold-blooded murderer.

Cube April 9th, 2013 @ 10:36 am

Well, yeah ’cause it’s a lot safer. The vigilante is (theoretically) trying to right a wrong (in the wrong way). After all, the phrase is “vigilante justice. The murderer just wants to get what he wants and has proven he’ll attack anybody who gets in the way. That makes him much more dangerous to confront.

Also, the vigilante shows that the state doesn’t have a monopoly on the use of force and that can’t be tolerated. People might start getting dangerous ideas, y’know?

SHAMELESS CAPITALISM

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